BIOS

Hot Topics

Latest Story

Three "heartbroken" Canadian families who were in the final stages of adopting Russian orphans when Moscow halted all adoptions from countries that recognize same-sex marriage have turned to Stephen Harper for help.

Russia's ombudsman for children's rights sought on Thursday to reassure American would-be adoptive parents that they will be allowed to take their children back to the United States. But some Americans with court rulings in their favour say they're still in legal limbo.

From their faraway homes in the American West, the two couples made repeated missions of love to Moscow, each seeking to adopt children with Down syndrome. Now, with court approval at last in hand, a political squabble with a trace of Cold War friction has derailed those plans, leaving them in anxious limbo.

Thousands of people marched through Moscow on Sunday to protest Russia's new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, a far bigger number than expected in a sign that outrage over the ban has breathed some life into the dispirited anti-Kremlin opposition movement.

The Kremlin said Thursday that an adoption deal with the U.S. will remain valid until 2014 despite a new Russian law banning the practice, but it's unclear whether it would keep the door open for more adoptions or allow the completion of adoptions that were under way before the ban was passed.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, a defiant move against the U.S. that has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point.

Defying a storm of domestic and international criticism, Russia moved toward finalizing a ban on Americans adopting Russian children, as Parliament's upper house voted unanimously Wednesday in favour of a measure that President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will sign into law.

U.S.-based advocates of international adoption, who have grown accustomed to discouraging news in recent years, have a new cause for dismay: a bill moving through Russia's parliament that would bar Americans from adopting Russian children.